Tropic Thunder / Tonnerre sous les tropiques

Tropic Thunder is a 2008 action comedy film directed by Ben Stiller. While the shooting of a movie about Vietnam War is going badly, the director decides to immerse 5 actors in the jungle. He hopes to film them using candid cameras. Unfortunately, not everything goes as expected: they quickly find themselves isolated in the jungle in uniforms and with artificial weapons… They decide to continue the « shooting » using a map and a list of scenes.

Often, in movies, when a protagonist needs to use a map, he manages it without any problem, as if map reading was something obvious. But it is not always the case, as for example in The Hitch-Hicker, or in Tropic Thunder. Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) is entrusted with a map but he is incapable to use it, to decipher it for finding one’s bearings. So the group gets lost. One of his companions, Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), points out that there are letters and numbers on the map, which allow Speedman to find one’s way. And he suggest that using a map requires some practice and that Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), another actor, had fortunately acquired this practice. But Speedman refuses to admit it and to leave the map to Sandusky. The map is here a symbol of power… Power given by the military rank for soldiers … Power given by the Director for actors (31th, 45th, 47th, 50th, 52nd ).

When the map changes hand (52nd minute), Speedman sees his power going away with it. His pride urges him to leave his partners. And he uses the movie’s scenes list for trying to find his way in the jungle… The list becomes a spatial machinery. And this time, Speedman knows how to use it.